Park-and-ride gets $3M expansion, longer waits

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Brian Johnson/AFN
Ann Armstrong, public affairs officer for Arizona Automobile Theft Authority, (left) handed out information Tuesday morning to bus riders at the 40th and Pecos streets Park and Ride. Commuters were being given freebies to celebrate expansion of the popular facility.
June 29, 2010

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Brian Johnson/AFN
City of Phoenix PIO Marie Chapple Camacho (second from right) was on hand Tuesday morning to greet riders at the 40th and Pecos streets Park and Ride. Commuters were being given freebies to celebrate expansion of the popular facility.
June 29, 2010

afn.070210.news.parknride4.jpg

Brian Johnson/AFN
Ann Armstrong, public affairs officer for Arizona Automobile Theft Authority, (left) handed out information Tuesday morning to bus riders at the 40th and Pecos streets Park and Ride. Commuters were being given freebies to celebrate expansion of the popular facility.
June 29, 2010

afn.070210.news.parknride2.jpg

Brian Johnson/AFN
Ann Armstrong, public affairs officer for Arizona Automobile Theft Authority, (left) handed out information Tuesday morning to bus riders at the 40th and Pecos streets Park and Ride. Commuters were being given freebies to celebrate expansion of the popular facility.
June 29, 2010

afn.070210.news.parknride5.jpg

Brian Johnson/AFN
City of Phoenix's Marie Chapple Camacho, (left) handed out information Tuesday morning to bus riders at the 40th and Pecos streets Park and Ride. Commuters were being given freebies to celebrate expansion of the popular facility.
June 29, 2010

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Brian Johnson/AFN
A rapid transit bus picks up passengers at the newly expanded park and ride facility at Pecos and 40th streets.
June 29, 2010

A $3 million expansion at Phoenix’s busiest
park-and-ride, in Ahwatukee Foothills, may have solved the
facility’s occasional parking crunch, but commuters also will have
to wait longer between buses to ferry them to and from
downtown.

Previously, commuters had to wait only five
minutes between buses during peak morning and evening hours at the
park-and-ride, situated northwest of 40th Street and
Pecos Road. But recent budget cuts have forced the Phoenix Public
Transit Department to reconfigure the schedule, eliminating the
7:10 a.m. and 4:56 p.m. buses and doubling the wait interval to 10
minutes beginning July 26, said spokeswoman Yvette Roeder.

On average, the service provides about 15,000
commuter trips per month, she said.

“Hopefully commuters can still get to the
office on time,” Roeder said. “Cutting one trip here and there is
better than cutting the whole program.”

The budget cuts also threatened to delay a $3
million expansion project at the site, which added 350 new parking
spots to the existing 500-spot facility, she said. However, the
project commenced in January after Phoenix secured federal stimulus
funding. Officials held a small grand opening ceremony for the
expansion on Tuesday. The city hired Kroll Contactors for the
work.

Roeder said that during busy times,
particularly in the winter months, the existing parking lot would
fill up rapidly, and commuters would park along curbs and in other
non-designated spaces.

“It could be hazardous,” she said.

Overflow parking at times has spilled out into
nearby residential streets, prompting complaints from neighbors,
she said.

Barb Niebel, who works for a private downtown
law firm, said she uses the park-and-ride nearly every weekday. She
said that after the interval between buses increases, each bus
likely will be more crowded, particularly during the winter peak
season.

Another commuter, Shane Miller, who works
downtown in the County Attorney’s Office, said winter is when the
impact might become apparent.

“It gets pretty packed on the way back,”
Miller said. “Sometimes on the way there I have to stand.”